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My Local Home Depot Discovers Customer Service. Will Others?
On the weekend I had the necessity to visit my local Home Depot. I'm not much of a DIYer so I hadn't been there for quite some time and I have to say that I was quite surprised by what I found.
Walking through the entrance, I was confronted by a large, well-lit customer service desk. Behind it was a large, well-lit stage and seating area for demonstrations. My Home Depot had had a bit of a face lift. But, those two features were not the most startling change.
I have never been a fan of my local Home Depot's customer service. Too often, I had wandered the aisles in search of an orange apron-clad staff member. Too often, once I'd found an orange apron-clad staff member I'd been told that he/she was just going on break. But Saturday was different. I asked a young lady where I might find screening material and she actually walked me over to the section and delivered me into the hands of an associate who worked there. I have to admit that I was shocked. In fact, I was gobsmacked.
Customer service in Canada too often takes the form of benign neglect. Today at lunch, a colleague related her story of visiting the Land's End department at the nearby Sears and finding no-one. I myself travelled to a Mark's Work Wearhouse on the weekend only to find it still closed, well past its opening time, with a huddle of customers waiting outside. I know no-one would argue with the fact that it's hard to spend money in a store when there's no-one there to take it. Maybe this customer service thing will catch on.
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Lori Smith, , Editor-in-Chief
Lori Smith is the editor of Gifts and Tablewares, Canada's premiere gifts and tablewares magazine. Written for retailers of gifts, tablewares, housewares, stationery and home furnishing accessories, its objective is to help readers increase their sales and run their businesses more profitably by providing information on new products, merchandising, small business management, customer service, consumer behavior and industry news. The magazine is published six times a year by BIG Magazines, LP, a leading Canadian information company.
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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on May 4, 2009 5:17 PM.
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